Tangent Line to the Cubic Function
Target Class: Calculus
Length of time: 10 minutes for the students to play followed by a 10 minute discussion
Overview: This activity is designed to be a follow up activity to exploring what happens
to the y-intercept of the normal line to the tangent line of y=x^2. You should have
discovered previously that when you increase your value of x starting with x=0, the y-
intercept decreases rather than increases for y=x^2. This activity allows you to explore
if the same thing happens to the normal line of the tangent line of y=x^3. The questions
that accompany the activity are in the dynamic worksheet.